SLA numbers IDP occupied houses in Palaly HSZ

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2004, 16:42 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Monday started numbering the houses in villages Pannalai and adjacent areas located in the Palaly high security zones (HSZ) where internally displaced families have resettled after signing the ceasefire agreement. The SLA authorities say that they do the numbering enabling them to easily identify the occupants.

However the SLA is currently refusing to allow fresh resettlement of IDPs in Palaly HSZ citing security reasons, civil sources said.

Meanwhile several IDP families living in refugee camps and welfare centres have sought permission from the SLA to resettle in their houses and do cultivation in their agricultural lands which are located in the Palaly high security zone. But the SLA authorities have not given permission to the applicants, sources said.

In the meantime the Jaffna regional office of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka said that the SLA Jaffna command had given an assurance earlier that the SLA would allow permanent residents of HSZ to resettle in their houses and cultivate their lands, sources said.